Thursday, July 22, 2010

Hello Again

It's been a while. I've been busy building a deck, landscaping an vacationing at the Outer Banks. So, my posts as well as running miles have been way down as of late.

Running on the beach was wonderful. I only ran a couple of times since I ripped a chunk of skin from the ball of my right foot. I was playing with kids at a July 4th party, twisting around and caught it on a corner of the sidewalk. That sidelined me for the next week. At the beach, I taped it and ran fine.

Today was my first run without tape and it felt good. I ran 6.9 miles through waterworks park and then around Silver Lake.

Last month I met with Barefoot Ken Bob at a workshop he held in Medina. There were about 8 of us there. Only a few had run any significant miles barefoot. The rest were curious having read Born to Run. Like Barefoot Josh, much of what was covered was familiar, but I did learn a few things. Apparently, I haven't been holding my head high enough. I tend to tilt my head to look down at the path in front of me. BF KB suggests holding your head steady and upright, looking forward and scanning down with your eyes. Running from the hips is important too. Focusing on this helps me run upright with better form. I didn't think I would ever have the chance to meet the guru of barefoot running, but there you are. It was a privileged experience.